Hi. I'm new to car forums, but I'm hoping this will help me decide!! I'm looking at a Gen II- a 2005 with about 93k miles for around $11k. I'm also looking at a Gen III- a 2010 Prius II with 35k miles (it was a rental) for about $20k. I personally am leaning towards the 2010 since there's a good chunk of the warranty remaining, but my husband thinks the 2005 is a really good deal. I can afford either car... that's not really the issue since I'm pre-approved for a loan, but I don't know what's the better deal. The one HUGE thing I didn't like about the 2005 is when I test drove it at night, the spedometer display reflected against the windshield right into my line of vision... it would actually make it hard for me to see right in front of me without being slightly distracted. The thing the the 2010 is I just don't know if that's a good deal since it was a rental and all... Then there's my third option- continue to fix up my '89 Volvo 240 wagon until it rusts off the road. any advice/comments would be HUGELY appreciated!!
If you're working with a Toyota dealership and the '05 is a Toyota Certified Used car with no major accidents or repairs, I'd go with that one. I bought my wife an '05 with 117K miles for $8620 (+tax, etc) and have no reservations about the high mileage at all. Since the '05 still has less than 100k miles on it, you could probably get an extended warranty at a reasonable price if you need the comfort factor...I personally would pass on the ext-warranty. As for the speedometer glare, you could jerry-rig a short shield over the top of it to block that from the windshield. Do your due-diligence researching each vehicles' history and you should be good either way. [edit]BTW, the reason for the difference in mileage between my '04 and the wife's '05 (see sig) is because I installed an add-on battery pack system and use Hipermiling techniques, while she doesn't have the add-on battery pack and I told her she could 'just drive' the car and didn't have to Hipermile any. Regardless, she's stomping her prior 16mpg in the Ranger it replaced. [/edit]
I think I saw somewhere that a Toyota doesn't qualify as "certified used car" if it has 85k+ miles on it, so the 2005 is not a certified used car. I didn't look into an extended warranty yet, but I'll ask about it.
These are your figures as of 3-9-11. I just pulled it off the Manheim Auto Auction site, which is one of the largest auto auctions, so plenty of data to work with. For the 2005 right now (the value changes frequently): Average retail: $11,850 Average wholesale: $8350 (what a dealer bought it for) (Below) Average retail: $6450 (Below) Average wholesale: $9275 *EDIT* On the attachment, take the bottom numbers. They adjust for the mileage of 93k. I think the average mileage that was shown was 111k, so it is adding for the lower miles. The area where you live vs where I live will affect these numbers a little, but still, this should give you a good idea.
I have a 2005 w/122kmiles on it & I have no problems whatsoever. I bought it with 90k & also got a 125kmile warranty 'just incase' since, to me, that was high mileage. I figured it was my first Prius & I wanted to see if I liked it enough so I bought used instead of new. Turns out I love it! I'm selling mine to get another. Never needed to use the warranty. So I wouldn't have any qulms about the mileage based on my Prius experience. Good luck!
